dip in the pool – Silence, 1986

Debut from Japanese duo dip in the pool. Fairly minimal, often baroque-leaning synth and voice arrangements, with heavy, widely spaced drums that, in such a synthetic context, take on a cyber-medieval quality. Standouts are the title track and the stunningly beautiful “Rabo del Sol,” the video for which is previewed below–it comes from their 1991 laserdisc release of music videos. Both tracks evoke a similar mystical gravitas, a perfect vessel for Miyako Koda‘s straight-tone vocal sobriety. (Interestingly, though a handful of tracks pick up to a spronky trot–like “Hasu No Enishi” and “View”–and feel like obvious video game scores, it was a slower, more ceremonious track called “Ismeel” that was later used in the PlayStation game Omega Boost.) Silence, which was released elsewhere as a self-titled, features production by Seigen Ono and Masahide Sakuda. The duo recently released a collaboration with the Visible Cloaks geniuses on RVNG, and unsurprisingly, it’s very good.

this is brilliant, thanks so much! Can I ask, have you ever listened to the brilliant album "Walks" by Tranquil Eyes? '86 I think. This vaguely made me think of that. Absolutely mindblowing cold / cyber / no wave record, the song "Television" from it is a great entry point, surprised it never appeared on listen to this' posts at some point!